Upgrading Tear Drop Style Headlights.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

When the weather gets too cold to get outside (10 degrees with 20+mph wind, and snow on the ground), I spend some time in the recliner reading, but after a day or two I get restless and start looking for something to do where it is warm. Something always comes of it, sometimes good, sometimes not. However given a few items I had laying around and a nice war workbench beside the stove in the basement, anything can happen.

Recipe requires:
14 inches of 1/4 inch gas hose
sharp utility knife to split it lengthwise
a soldering iron
Some short scraps of automotive wire
some crimp terminals
an empty tear drop lamp housing with ring
a 4511 sealed beam 6 volt bulb





It is not clamped together yet, and is not a perfect match to an original setup, but will be a way to reuse the tear drop housings and improve light output.

A couple warnings,
First, not all 4511 lamps have the textured lens to diffuse light, some are a clear lens like a spotlight
Second, the original 1133 lamp draws 3.9 amps, but the 4511 draws 4.8 amps, so they will put a heavier drain on the electrical system.

[Barnyard]

That's real nice John. Thanks for the "How To"

[Don McCombs]

Looks great, John. Can you show us how you wired it up?

[BigBill]

Nice job.... Its nice to find the time to tinker with the little stuff.

We did the final fit up on my tire chains today becaue we had a heat wave it hit 33 degrees today. Tanning weather... Since i don't get out too much i even went to TSC today too. I spent my gift cards from santa.

I have a bathroom to remodel soon. We moved into the new place and its time to remodel it and make it our own. The bathroom is down stairs. My wife said that i can have the down stairs for all my collectables. Me and my son figure that we will build a man cave. You know a pool table, a bar w/ a kitchenett, a big flatscreen that i can put on one bare wall that we can watch sports and movies. Of course she doesn't know that were going to work on the man cave too. I need a place to just kick back..... Then in the spring my new barn and tractor shed is next.

[John(videodoc)]

i got three you can fix up. just pm me your address.

[VinceD]

Good job, John.

[Rudi]

EJ:

Looks great, John. Can you show us how you wired it up?

to what Don said Then it will be another super How To for the CBoK

[Gary Boutwell]

John,
Way to GO!

Very nice and inventive way to rebuild a light.
Now, do it with a 12v flat one.

$45 bucks for that light is really high!

[Former Member]

Nice Job John.

a big flatscreen that i can put on one bare wall that we can watch sports and movies.

Bill, get one of the projectors you can tie into your computer and tv that mounts to the ceiling. That way you can use the entire wall.

[Gray Cub]

I thought it would probably be super ... and I was right!
It's very,cool!
once again, very cool!
A head-light like that should be so nice, I think it deserves to be on a cub like this!:

[cubguy's dad]

John,

Great job!!! Kyle and I were just talking about doing something like this with his "H" lights

Now we Know how

Thanks

Mark

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

No pictures of wiring till it gets warm enough to get to the shed, which ain't gonna happen for 2 or 3 days. It is pretty simple though. The bulb has 2 screw terminals on it. Connect a jumper from either one of them to the screw terminal inside the tear drop housing. Solder a wire to the copper ground strip on the inside of the housing (make sure it is far enough inside it will not interfere with getting the bulb in place), and connect the other end to the 2nd screw on the rear of the bulb.

[Yogie]

John,
Way to GO!

Very nice and inventive way to rebuild a light.
Now, do it with a 12v flat one.

$45 bucks for that light is really high!

Me to Gary, I'd like for someone to find something thin enought to fit in the pancake type lights.
Very good work John.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Wiring was petty simple, I just folded back the copper strip that normally grounds the rim of the reflector and cleaned all the paint, tarnish, etc. off a section of it. Then i soldered a short piece of wire with a terminal on one end to the copper strip. I connected another piece of wire with a terminal on both ends to the black post in the headlight housing.



Then connected each of the 2 wires to a different terminal on the back of the lamp.

[VAcub]

Great idea! it looks sharp.